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Judge: City of Savannah worker's history 'somewhat troubling'

A federal judge has called it “somewhat troubling” that a city of Savannah water department employee with a lengthy criminal history and carrying a gun was allowed to make service calls, including to homes of citizens, for three years as part of his job.

“It amazes me,” U.S. District Senior Judge B. Avant Edenfield said during a sentencing hearing for David Thompson this week.

Thompson, 32, was before Edenfield for sentencing after he pleaded guilty on Oct. 9 to a charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

His sentence: 10 years in custody, a $4,800 fine and three years on supervised release.

“The facts I’ve previously related to, the facts of the stop, the attendant circumstances, does not even begin to allay the court’s feeling that the criminal activity by Mr. Thompson has ever abated,” Edenfield said.

Thompson worked for about three years for the city Public Works (and) Water Resources Bureau, most recently as a maintenance mechanic completing water and sewer-related services, court records show.

City spokesman Bret Bell said Friday Thompson was terminated by the city in May 2013.

Thompson worked as a mechanic working on lift stations with the water and sewer department and would not have “interacted with the public,” Bell said.

The city does some background checks on applicants, but simply having a criminal record “isn’t necessarily a disqualifier depending on the job being applied for,” he said.

Thompson was stopped in a car on April 23 for not wearing a seatbelt and a window tint violation, court records show. The officer smelled marijuana, and Thompson admitted to smoking a marijuana cigar. He then volunteered that he had a firearm on him — a 9 mm Smith & Wesson semi-automatic weapon in his waistband, court records show.

Police also found 38 rounds of ammunition, 1.4 grams of marijuana, seven credit cards from seven different people and a digital scale commonly used in drug transactions, court records show.

Thompson’s defense attorney, John Davidson Carson Jr., conceded that Thompson did break the law, was a felon and was not supposed to carry a gun.

A convicted felon is barred for life from using or possessing a firearm or any dangerous weapon.

But, he said, Thompson “was carrying it for protection. He had no intention of using it unless he had some kind of threat to his family.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron Heaps Ippolito told Edenfield the defendant’s criminal history dating to age 17 and the type of violent activity and associations in which he’s been involved concerned her.

“I’m not saying this defendant was involved in the violence, but it shows he has not retreated from his association with those that do commit it, and I think that is very, very troubling when you look at his history,” she said.

In court, Thompson told Edenfield he bought the gun for protection after he became “afraid because of the rumors and threats” surrounding another man who had been slain.

Thompson also admitted he just got out of prison in October 2007 for his last conviction in August 2005.

“I had a bad background,” Thompson told the judge. “I was surrounded around violence.”

But Thompson said he was a changed man, working and taking care of his family, including his wife who is employed as a Savannah-Chatham police officer.

“I’ve been out five and a half years, and my whole focus was my family, my kids and my wife,” he said. “I worked every single day. ... I had no desire to commit any crimes or be part of any gang or anything.”